Freaking sad

Itchy's mom is really sick. This sucks. A lot. It hurts to watch her like this. It hurts even more to watch Itchy watch his mom like this.

Checking things off the list

Since Itchy's got some time off right now, we've got a few things checked off the "To Do" list. Once we get back from our road trip we'll really get focused and get things ready.

Speaking of the road trip, both of the cats are coming with us. There's no one here that has enough (any) free time to stop by here and check on them and we can't board Patches. So they get to come with. It'll make things more interesting for sure. Oddly enough, they both have eye infections right now but only in their left eyes. It's weird. They both started signs yesterday. I think it's a conspiracy. So not only do they get to go on a road trip but they get to be medicated for almost the entire time we'll be gone. Good times.

I had my glucose tolerance test yesterday. I had been told that the sugary drink is terrible but it really wasn't that bad. It tasted like concentrated Sprite. Sitting there for an hour was boring as hell, but I forgot to bring my book so it was my fault. There was an interesting conversation between some woman and a records clerk. But I think you had to be there to really appreciate it. I didn't find out the results of the test though which seems weird to me since they should have just been able to use a glucose meter and have results within seconds. Oh well.

Travel Restrictions be damned

Last week Itchy's mom had what was suppose to be a routine "you finished your chemo, let's just make sure you're still in remission" CT scan. Except instead of getting another all clear, they found a mass. The biopsy that was done this week confirmed the worst. The cancer is back and has spread.

We'll be taking a little trip up there to see her soon.

I thought that was for the baby

Yeah so the car seat was delivered today. Cuddles naturally assumed that it was for him and jumped right it. He was not interested in the fact that he was in it wrong and that the harness was suppose to go over him, not under him.



Patches* wasn't quite sure what to think of it. She needed to inspect it first.

Being the expert that she is, she quickly determined that it was a suitable place to sit. And she made herself quite comfy.

*Yes, I am aware that she is a big fat blob.

The Fair

Well, the State Fair wasn't quite what I expected. Much smaller and a lot less people. That probably had something to do with the weather report, as it called for thunderstorms all day. The weather actually turned out to be fine. Not too hot and not raining.

I think I over did it a little though. My sciatic nerve has been tied in a knot and is killing me. I'll post more about the fair later (tomorrow).

ETA:
Like I said yesterday, the State Fair was not the Great Get Together that I am used to. First of all, the fair is all about the food. Particularly about food on sticks. It's tradition. You go to the fair and eat food on a stick. The second greatest part of the fair is the free stuff. Everyone is giving away something. You can walk out of there with bags and bags of free stuff. Pens, pencils, water, buttons, bumper stickers, your name written in Brail, key chains, yard sticks, hats, water bottles, the Pickle Lady's autograph, etc. It's fun to hunt for all the free stuff.

This state fair had very little food on a stick. Hardly any in fact. Not much food selection either. There wasn't much in the way of free stuff either. I really had to hunt for that. It was still fun though. We were running a little late and couldn't find the building Itchy needed to be in, but we eventually got him there. He was only a little late, so not a big deal. They invited me in the back so I hung out back there until the first surgery. The doctor that had volunteered to be there didn't let Itchy do a damn thing, but he was a large animal guy and a pretty experienced one at that, so it didn't surprise me at all. It would have been nice if Itchy had been allowed to do anything, but whatever.

The first surgery was a neuter. So it took all of five minutes. Not really, but the doc took his sweet ass time and explained every detail and it was still over in about 10 minutes. After that Itchy and I walked around a bit. Looked for tasty food but I wasn't really hungry and nothing looked good. Itchy had a steak sandwich from the Cattle Association which he said was really good. We also had roasted corn which was pretty tasty.

We walked through the barns but really, they weren't that great. The cow barn was empty. In fact, I only saw one cow all day ( a super cute baby Jersey). The pigs are too smelly so we skipped them. The horses were great but it must have been Belgian Draft Horse day because that's all that was there. They were fun to look at but they are some huge freaking horses. The sheep barn was full of Suffolk sheep.

We also went to the Horticulture building but that was not that impressive. Even the giant pumpkins didn't look that big. Eh. We tasted some Honey Ice Cream. It was kind of gross. After that Itchy had to get back to prepare for the second surgery. All of the exciting stuff happened after Itchy went back.

I went to the Home and Arts building. There were some amazing quilts in there. The art work was pretty cool too. After that I walked to the other side of the fair grounds. I walked passed a stand where you could get a henna tattoo. I had no interest in it but the elderly Indian woman that was doing the tattoos really wanted to put one on my belly. Even though I declined she was very nice.

I went through the DNR building, which was nicely air conditioned, and looked at the aquariums. I talked to a DNR employee and asked for fishing recommendations but they could only suggest places that I already knew about.

I walked through the FFA building and determined that FFA is the same no matter where you are. The only difference was how many people are involved. Around here there are way more participants.

There were lots of vendors along the way but I had no need for straw hats, leather wallets, and fleece blankets for the local NFL team. I did stop for a Lemonade Shakeup though. I figured it must be tasty since every food stand was selling it. Turns out it's not very good. I was expecting something like partially frozen lemonade. It was more like sugar water with a slice of lemon in it. Given that people here love their sweet tea (IE sugar water with a splash of tea), this was not a surprise to me.

Then I hit the jackpot and found what I like to call the Free Food building. They were just giving away samples of foods grown in the state. They had a ton of stuff. I didn't even try everything (a lot of pork products are made here) but left there feeling full. Probably since they gave me two huge things of ice cold watermelon. Mmm.. watermelon.

Since Itchy wanted to get back to school as soon as he could (they were really busy and one of his patients was having surgery) he asked me to be back before the second surgery was done. As I was walking back across the fairgrounds I saw an old man fall and hit his head on the curb. He had a pretty good size laceration on his forehead that was bleeding a lot. A fair employee happened to be close by and after he was told what happened, he called for first aid. Surprisingly, of the dozens of people that saw what happened, not many offered to do anything. One woman went to alert the fair employee but no one else really did anything but point and gawk. The old man was with another guy in his 30's (I'm guessing it was his son). I went over to offer the old man my water (I had just bought a bottle of cold water, it was not open yet) since the old guy was all sweaty and looked hot. I suggested that the 30ish year old guy help get the old man into the shade. Once the old man was in the shade and the fair guy got there, they both thanked me for the water and then I left. I'm pretty sure the old man had a little case of heat exhaustion.

I got back to the surgery building in time to watch the end of the spay. It really surprised me how many people were grossed out by the surgery. Since I was sitting in the back a few people asked me what they were doing. When I told them, they seemed genuinely disgusted by it. Not necessarily the idea of the spay, but the actual surgery itself. Even people who were sitting there watching it cringed when the doctor was pointing out the ovaries and uterus.

Once Itchy was done with recovery, we had to go. I made him stop for ice cream on the way out. Not that honey flavored crap we had earlier either. The high schoolers running the dairy barn clearly need to be back in school. Not the brightest bunch. Yikes. The ice cream was good though.

That was pretty much it. I have pictures of Itchy in the surgery booth but you can't tell it's him. I doubt he'd want me to post it anyway. I didn't take many pictures because there just wasn't much there.

Fair Day

I'm going to the Fair tomorrow. I'm going to do my best to remember my camera but don't hold your breath. Even if I remember it chances are the batteries will die and it will be useless.

The weather is suppose to be crappy. And Itchy told me that as soon as his second surgery is done we have to leave because the clinic here is going to be swamped.

I should really go find directions and parking info.

I should also go to bed since I have to get up early.

Stowa the ninja

So Itchy has this theory that Stowa doesn't like him. He believes this to be true because dang near every time he tries to feel her moving she stops. I don't think it has anything to do with her liking him or not. In fact she's usually more active when he's around. But she does stop kicking when he puts his hand on my belly. My explanation is that she is a ninja. Very stealth. Doesn't like to be detected by others. She certainly can kick and punch like a ninja.

Just a few minutes ago Itchy has sleeping with his head on my belly. Don't worry, this is normal for him. He falls asleep anywhere these days. Anyway, Stowa was kicking him in the head the whole time. Undetected by him. Hilarious to me.

She's going to have to do something about the hiccups if she wants to be a ninja though. She gets them all the time. It's hard to be stealth when you have the hiccups.

28 weeks

Itchy can finally stop asking me if we're in the 3rd trimester yet. As of today "we" are. To celebrate I made a "To Do" list. Making the list was easier than actually doing any of the things on the list.

ETA: I did get one thing crossed off the list. Car seat has been ordered.

ETA: Here's a pic from Monday.

PSA

Cancer sucks.

That is all.

Didn't we all learn this?

Keep your hands to yourself.

Isn't that something that you are taught at a young age? Your hands are full of germs. Almost all of the time. Even if you just washed them. The next thing you touch is probably covered in germs. Which means that your hands are again full of germs.

I'm really not a germaphobe. I'm not afraid to get dirty. You really can't be if you work or live with animals. But I don't go around touching everything either. I keep my hands to myself. I don't need to spread my germs around and I certainly don't need to pick up other people's germs. I keep my hands to myself.

It seems like common sense. So why is it that other people don't do this? Why do they think they should touch everything? They run their hands along the neatly folded towels in a store, they pick up dang near every piece of fruit in the produce department, and they touch people they don't know.

Last week I was at the mall looking for birthday presents for the nieces. I didn't find anything, but that's not the point. While I was browsing an older lady (maybe 50ish?) touched my belly and asked when I was due. Let's get something straight. I was not looking at baby clothes or any other baby stuff. I was not looking at maternity clothes. Nothing to do with pregnancy at all. I was shopping for my soon to be 11 year old niece. Yeah, I look pregnant but not obviously so. Sometimes the shirt I'm wearing has a lot to do with it. I sure as hell wasn't wearing anything that made it terribly obvious (like a Baby-On-Board shirt).

Anyway, so this lady can't keep her hands to herself. She has her hand planted on my belly and asks when I'm due. I turn to her and say I'm not pregnant. She quickly removed her hand and became flustered. I think she may have mumbled something about being sorry. I'm not sure. I just walked away.

Was it mean? Maybe. Was it funny? Hell yes. She was old enough to know better. Don't touch strangers. A good old hand shake aside (in which a hand is offered, not forced) you have no business touching people you don't know. I'm not real happy about people I know touching my belly. I'm certainly not ok with strangers and their germy hands touching me. I really hope that she learned a lesson.

27th week appointment

I had yet another appointment today. It wasn't as boring as the others have been since they seemed intent on freaking me out the entire time.

Stowa is growing fine and seems to be right on track. Heartbeat remains at 156. They confirmed that she is head down.

I had to skip the diabetes test since the only tech that was there was really, really busy. My blood pressure was up. I've got some swelling, which they think is due to the heat and the high blood pressure. It's nothing to worry about but I've been told to avoid the heat and to chug more water. They weren't happy with the number of Braxton Hicks contractions that I'm having either. I'm also on travel restrictions as of next week. I've been told to avoid long car rides. They really don't want me more than an hour away from here.

Then they started asking me questions. Simple questions about my (lack of) insurance; the baby's insurance; have I picked out a pediatrician yet; where will baby's insurance allow her to be seen; do we have a car seat, crib, etc; what will I use for birth control after the baby is born; and so on. It made me feel completely unprepared. At which point my brain started to melt.

I went to the zoo

Yesterday, in between visits to buy Itchy a phone, we went to the zoo. Not the good zoo in Capital City, just the little zoo in town.

The good stuff: it was free.

The bad stuff: Everything else

They have a Bald Eagle exhibit. But you can't see the Bald Eagle unless you happen to be over 7 feet tall and can see over the fence. The Prairie Dog exhibit was completely empty. The Turkey Vulture and Barn Owl had to share a very small enclosure. Sure you could at least see them, but that enclosure was way too small. They had a pony, some miniature goats, chickens, and a llama in the petting zoo. There were also gibbons and spider monkeys. The butterfly garden appeared to have at least a few butterflies in it, but I didn't actually go in it.

And that was it. At least we didn't have to pay to get in.

Birthday guess

Itchy is guessing that Stowa will arrive on November 11th. I'm going with November 17th (even though I tell her all the time it's ok for her to come at the end of October). I'm sure Price Is Right rules will apply so this is one bet I want to lose.

Go ahead and make a guess. I'll add it to the list.

I feel like an idiot

Want to know how to make yourself feel like an absolute idiot? Here's one way!

First remove yourself from the civilized technologically advanced country for about 3 years. The Island is a great place to do that. There is no need for technology there. Your basic cell phone will do just fine.

Second, move back to the real world and try to buy a new cell phone. I went to Best Buy for this but you can go to the store of your choosing.

That should do it. Or at least it did for me. I'm feeling mighty stupid this evening.

Yeah. Itchy needed a fancy new phone. He had a cheap pay as you go phone that works fine for making calls but he needed something that could connect to the internet. He needs to be able to look things up quickly for school. This is understandable. So we went to Best Buy.

We were swarmed by a very loud talking man as soon as we even glanced at the phones. Which is what we expected. Itchy explained what the phone would be used for and the salesman pointed him in the right direction (loudly). I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Itchy was confused too. We nodded and played along pretending that we had a clue but in reality neither one of us really knew what all the jargon was about. In the end we just grabbed a bunch of brochures and left.

Once we got home we looked at the brochures and goggled the hell out of them. We had to make a few assumptions (more memory? is it really necessary or overkill?) but we found a phone that Itchy liked and that we thought would work.

Then came the service providers and all of their plans. That was fun. You know why so many people just sign up for the unlimited plans? It's because they get sick of looking at that crap and just want it to be over with. We couldn't go that route since we've got the poor. Since we were a little rushed (Itchy wanted to get it done today) we figured that we'd ask the people at Best Buy what plan they thought would be best.

So we head back to the store. Tell Spencer which phone we want and then ask him which plan he recommends. Spencer doesn't really seem to know which provider would be best. Apparently they are all the same. Alrighty then. We'll just go with the cheapest one. After about an hour (It took a while for Spencer to get everything set up) we walk out of there with this fancy new smart phone.

Smart phone my ass. It didn't even have the right date or time. You'd think Spencer could have taken care of that for us or that the phone would automatically be set to the right time (even my $10 phone did that). It took about 20 minutes for me to figure out how to set the time and date. It has too many buttons.

After Itchy got done at school (he has a patient in the ICU) he played around with it. He seemed to like it but he couldn't get it to connect to the internet. Since that is kind of the whole point of having the damn thing, he was annoyed. He had to go back to school again so he asked me to figure it out.

Ugh. I tried. I goggled stuff, read the manuals, cursed at it, etc. Nothing was working. So I called customer service and explained that I was stupid and couldn't figure out how to use the phone. The woman I talked to was very nice and she talked to me like I was five. It took a while but we figured out what the problem was and now the phone can browse the internet. Ha ha phone. I won that round.

I feel so old. Between the fancy new phone, the cable box, and the wireless internet router I feel so out of it.

Need to stop planning for anything

The universe has it out for me. I try to make plans and something else gets in the way. Things don't happen the way that I think they should. It's probably for the best, since things happen for a reason, but I really didn't think my plans were all that awful. Whatever universe. You get your way again.

Vet school is stupid

and I hate it.

This has been a craptacular weekend. Itchy has been at school all weekend. I'm annoyed with the way things are run at the school. Things could run so much smoother. They need a little lesson from the vet I used to work with.

I was up almost all night with a vomiting cat. I get a little nauseous when cleaning up the vomit so that didn't work out so well. It seems that Patches is feeling better today but she isn't really eating. I'm sure her throat and stomach are still a little sore from all the vomiting, but if she doesn't eat tonight she's going to have to go see a vet tomorrow. I hate taking her to the vet. She's a beast.

I haven't felt that great this weekend either. Not as bad as Patches but it's been a chore to get anything done.

The highlight of the weekend was an old man. On my way to Target today I saw an old man trip and nearly fall on the sidewalk. That alone wasn't funny to me but his reaction to falling was hilarious. After he regained his balance he shook his fist at the sidewalk. It still makes me laugh.

100 days?

Apparently it is only 100 more days until my due date. November seems so far away and so close all at the same time. It's weird. It's hard to believe it's August already. The baby is already head down (I know she can still flip around, but right now she's head down) and I've been having lovely Braxton Hicks contractions.

August is probably going to be a pretty busy month too, which will make it go even quicker. I'm trying to work out some details so that I can go visit my family. I didn't get to see them much when we got back from The Island (with the shot gun wedding and what not). Ideally, I'll get there before school starts so the nieces and I can have some fun. My sisters want to throw a baby shower too. I'm iffy on that but they are insistent.

Itchy wants to make a trip back to see some of his friends for a fantasy football draft and he wants me to go to that. Of course, there will be time spent with his family as well. I have zero interest in the fantasy football draft and really don't want to participate in the festivities surrounding it (sounds like they are getting a party bus to go bar hopping the night before). This makes things really awkward for me. Since Itchy will be out all night and we're staying at his parent's house, I either suck it up and deal with drunken boys until the wee morning hours or I spend time with Itchy's parents, without Itchy. Neither one of these options sound like fun to me. I don't even want to go but his mom is totally expecting me to be there. Ugh, I'm not really sure what to do. Itchy doesn't get why both options suck for me. I could kick him.

We also have the State Fair to look forward to. That should be a fun day. I'm really hoping for awesome weather that day.